<p class="lead">You did it! You discovered the Higgs-boson!</p>

<section data-min-level="1">
  <h4>The Higgs field</h4>
  <p>
  The Higgs-Englert field has a central role in our current understanding of the universe.
  Through a process called <em>Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking</em>, it is responsible for the masses of all massive fundamental particles that we know of.
  </p>
</section>

<section data-min-level="5">
  <h4>What is Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking?</h4>
  <p>
  At every point in space, the Higgs field has a certain <em>strength</em>, a number that tells you how active the field is.
  This is quite similar to temperature: You can assign a temperature to every point in a room, and the temperatures might be different for different points in the room and even change with time.
  </p>
  <p>
  The Higgs-Englert field is the most special fundamental field that we know of: It interacts with nearly all of the other fields (like the electron field or the quark fields).
  This means that the Higgs field can greatly influence the other fields: If it is active somewhere, then electrons, quarks and other particles in that region will be slowed down by it.
  This is equivalent to them gaining mass!
  </p>
  <p>
  But if the Higgs field would have an average strength of zero (as is usual for a field), then we would not be able to observe this slowdown (meaning no mass for other particles).
  </p>
  <p>
  So how come this is not the case?
  It turns out that the Higgs field's <em>potential</em>, which governs how much energy is needed to increase its strength, has a very special form (see below).
  If the energy density in the universe is low enough, the field will drop down into the valley in the potential.
  This means it will be <em>locked to a non-zero strength</em>, and other particles gain mass everywhere in the universe!
  </p>
  <img src="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Higgs-Potential-lookdown.png" width=550></img>
  <p style="float:right">
  Source: <a href="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2011/11/21/why-do-we-expect-a-higgs-boson-part-i-electroweak-symmetry-breaking/">Flip Tanedo</a>
  </p>
</section>

<section data-min-level="10">
  <h4>Higgs' contribution</h4>
  <p>
  The mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking was discovered and explored by various different researchers.
  But it was Peter Higgs who first proposed, in 1964, that we could find evidence of it by searching for a new fundamental particle, now called the <em>Higgs boson</em>.
  </p>
</section>

<section data-min-level="15">
  <h4>Discovery at the LHC</h4>
  <p>
  After decades of work, the discovery of the Higgs boson was announced in 2012 by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN.
  In 2013, Englert and Higgs received a Nobel Price for their contributions to the Higgs mechanism and the prediction of the Higgs particle.
  </p>
</section>

<section data-min-level="20">
  <h4>The future of Higgs physics</h4>
  <p>
  You might think that we now know everything there is to know about the Higgs field, but it turns out that we actually know very little!
  Questions like
  <ul>
      <li>What are the coupling strengths of the Higgs boson to itself?</li>
      <li>Is there just one Higgs particle or could there more?</li>
      <li>What is the role of the Higgs field in the early, mysterious <em>inflationary</em> phase of the universe?</li>
  </ul>
  are sure to have physicists on the edge of their seats for many years to come!
  </p>
</section>

<section data-min-level="1">
<h5><b>参考资料</b></h5>
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson" target="_blank">Higgs boson on Wikipedia</a></li>
  <li data-min-level="5"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2011/11/21/why-do-we-expect-a-higgs-boson-part-i-electroweak-symmetry-breaking/">Quantum Diaries article on Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking</a></li>
</ul> 
</section>

